The Relation between Burnout, Life Event Stresses and Coping Strategies in Mental Health Workers

Abstract Background The care of patients, the health system, and the personal health of healthcare professionals are all negatively impacted by burnout. Burnout has been linked to reduced patient satisfaction, prolonged recovery periods, medical errors, and poor outcomes. Health organizations may also be impacted by burnout, which can result in higher employee turnover, lower productivity, fewer patient access, and more expenses. The thoughts and acts employed for managing the demands of stressful events, both internal and external, are referred to as coping strategies. Aim of the Work In the current study, Maslach burnout inventory was used to assess the rate of occurence of burnout also, coping strategies scale and life events stresses scale by Holmes and Rahe were used in this study. Patients and Methods This cross-sectional observational study was done on 95 mental health workers to assess the rate of occurence of burnout, the life event stressess and the coping styles used in order to cope with stress. Results In the current study, we found that 49.5% had high emotional exhaustion, 40% had high rates of depersonalization and 22.1% had low scores of personal accomplishments. Our results showed a statistically significant association of gender with EE and DP but no association with PA. As regarding coping strategies, the most frequently reported strategy is religious conditioning (type of emotion focused coping) followed by planning (problem focused coping) followed by positive reassessment (emotion focused coping). The least used strategies are behaviour withdrawal, humour and denial, which is the least used strategy, and the three of them are considered dysfunctional coping. Conclusion Burnout is a challenge facing mental health workers and it has a signifcant impact on their capacity to offer service and care to patients. Several measures are needed to reduce staff burnout especially among physicians and nurses. Healthy coping strategies need to be promoted in order to reduce and help to deal with burnout.